Jewish Perspectives on the Ethics of Genetic Engineering (By Quinn Farmer)

The manipulation of genetic material is a technological marvel of modern medicine. Genetic screening, gene therapy, and genetic engineering are all topics at the cutting edge of science, new enough to reach the world of ethics. The idea of changing aspects of what makes humans intrinsically themselves raises questions about when science goes too far.

Jewish experts have thought particularly deeply about this issue. Deadly genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Huntington's disproportionately affect the Jewish community. Pointing to Jewish law, Judaism does not prohibit "playing God," so to speak. In the eyes of Jewish law, genetic manipulation is not considered a violation of nature. In fact, it is covered by God’s mandate to heal.

Jewish law, halakhah, places supreme importance on preserving human life. Consequently, the utilization of genetic engineering on humans to prolong or save lives is not only permissible but also required. This reasoning applies to the removal, repair, or deactivation of genetic defects as long as the effectiveness justifies the risks. For the Jewish community, the potential benefit is enormous.

It is not simply a question of doctrine but, for many Jews, a personal health issue. Ethnic Ashkenazi Jews are among the communities most affected by deadly genetic illnesses. Tay-Sachs disease is a fatal genetic disorder in children, causing progressive destruction of the nervous system. Controlled by a pair of genes on chromosome 15, if both genes are inactive, the person has Tay-Sachs and dies very young. The question lies with the people who have one functioning gene, making them a carrier. If a carrier marries another carrier, their child is at a high risk of having Tay-Sachs, if not likely being a carrier themselves. It follows that premarital screening for Tay-Sachs is widely recommended for Jewish couples looking to start a family.

Prenatal screening opens up the possibility of discovering whether an embryo has Tay-Sachs, but this raises the ethical issue of whether to perform an abortion exclusively because of the disease. Some rabbis say that the fact an embryo will develop into a child with abnormalities is not sufficient reason to have an abortion. Whatever the religious consensus, the fact that genetic screening gives parents a choice—a precious choice to decide if having such a child is worth the physical and mental pain of a young death—is indispensable. Screening for incurable genetic diseases, even those that do not present until middle age, such as Huntington's, has saved countless lives.

Genetic screening has been invaluable to the Jewish community, and genetic manipulation based on those results, as extreme as it may sound, is believed to fall under the mandate to heal. If genetic surgery could correct genes in a fertilized egg, it would not be considered a person and, therefore, would not possess the ethical status of a person. Although it could be argued that genetic engineering shows a lack of faith by altering part of God’s creation, authorities such as Fred Rosner, MD, point to a sizable consensus that genetic manipulation not only fulfills a physician's duty but also obeys the mandate to heal from God.

However, the key question that scares many is: where is the line? As Rabbi Sacks said in an address to Oxford on the topic of genetic manipulation, “The question is: will we know where to stop? Will we be able to draw the essential line between therapeutic and eugenic interventions? Will we recognize the moral limits of biotechnology?” (Jonathan Sacks, "The Good Society") Ethical perspectives, unlike legal ones, have no clear answers. Needless to say, Judaism does not permit the alteration of physical traits or characteristics, but distinguishing between the medical and aesthetic is only getting more difficult. As a group historically targeted by eugenics, the idea of genetic engineering can reach some painful depths for the Jewish community. The question of the purpose and relative morality of genetic alteration applications has no clear interpretation. Sacks’ reasoning on the issue may not provide any concrete answers, but it lays a roadmap for dealing with these moral quandaries. In the same Oxford lecture, he concluded, “The simplest answer is that in pursuit of progress, we have valued science over ethics. We have focused on technical mastery rather than on the question, ‘To what end?’ The result is that we have unparalleled knowledge of what is, and unprecedented doubts as to what ought to be.” (Sacks, "The Good Society") As we achieve more unprecedented marvels and the scientific goalpost moves indefinitely further away, we must continue to ask ourselves what our goals are and what the result should be. Genetic engineering is a technology with great promise and significant risk to the future of mankind. What is of the utmost importance is continuing the iterative questions, asking what is ethical and why we are creating these technologies as we move into an unprecedented future.

Bibliography

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Rosner, F. "Judaism, Genetic Screening and Genetic Therapy." The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, New York 65, nos. 5-6 (1998): 406-13. Accessed March 28, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9844372/.

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